It has long been known that soft, meaty pet foods are very palatable to companion animals and these types of food have many advantages to pet owners. It has also long been known that dry, crunchy pet foods have desirable teeth cleaning and storage characteristics. There are numerous kinds of pet foods that are combinations of these two types of pet foods.
Blends of pet foods having a hard outer component and a soft textured inner component have been extensively produced and have achieved notable success. Examples of such pet foods are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,916,029, 4,777,058 and 6,117,477. Other pet foods having a soft-textured outer component and a hard inner component are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,900,572 and 4,260,635.
It is also known that companion animals typically derive a high level of satisfaction from consuming table scraps that include bones and pet owners frequently give their pets table scraps even though most table scraps are not nutritionally complete foods for companion animals. Additionally, table scraps can spoil quickly and are not capable of being stored without refrigeration.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pet food product that provides a high level of eating satisfaction for companion animals that also has a high nutritional and caloric value providing all the constituents of a balanced diet for the animal.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a pet food product having a meaty outer component and an inner bone-like component that is microbiologically stable when stored without refrigeration in non-hermetic packages.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a pet food product having a meaty outer component and an inner bone-like component in a novel shape and form that is appealing to the pet owner, easy to handle and in proper amounts for feeding to an animal.